OLTL: confirmation of something we already knew

[Scotty]

I'm sure most of us know that it is John laying in the hospital bed all bandaged up and not Hugh, but here is the first written confirmation I have seen of that....

This is the first sentence is an OLTL soap recap for last week from Nancy M. Reichardt of the

United Feature Syndicate ( http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/.../LIFE/610080332 ) :

ONE LIFE TO LIVE: No one is aware that it's a badly burned John, not Hugh, lying in the hospital bed unable to talk. Paige fumed when the police escorted Spencer to the hospital so he could see "Hugh" (John). John's reaction to Spencer caused his hospital monitors to go crazy, and Spencer was forced to leave the room. Hugh's adoptive parents, believing Hugh was the bandaged-covered patient, were allowed into the hospital room. Natalie helped Michael, Marcie and Eve plan "John's" funeral, but Natalie believes John is still alive. Jessica punched a drunken Claudia then worried she's behaving like Tess. To get revenge, Adriana ruined Dorian's attempt to reconcile with Clint. After the boxing commission believed Cris purposely lost his last fight, Evangeline vowed to help Cris prove them wrong. Asa got riled up when Nigel asked about the mysterious photo Spencer gave Asa last New Year's Eve.

Wonder if this means that Hugh is dead, or possibly still alive? One never knows with OLTL these days...

[Q Steph]

This show is so....

If the body were badly burned, dental confirmation would be needed. You don't just assume identification by random tatoo's.

I could give a damn less about Adrianna. Loser.

Jessica is a brat. Bring back Tess!

[Josh]

So did they bury Hugh?? Is he gone off the canvas????

[leevo64]

Okay, I don't hate OLTL lately like everyone else seems to, but this is just plain STUPID. You're going to tell me that they build Paige's long lost child for a year only to kill him off?!

[applcin]

I would wonder about this myself, were it not for those two girls in the news to whom this whole scenario actually happened. DNA was not used since, according to the coroner, they didn't have doubts as to identification of the victims, since they had photo i.d. and family identification. A paramedic had even clipped the wrong i.d. on one of the girls. Two families didn't realize they each had the wrong girl--it wasn't until the survivor, Whitney Cerak, came out of her coma five weeks later, speaking her name, and they matched up her dental records that it was confirmed. Funny how things you don't think can happen do. I believe OLTL got their story from this case.

I don't hate it either, and my viewing on and off has been since the late 70's. Not to say, I don't think it has problems, but I don't hate it.

Well, the storytelling on this show, generally speaking, seems to take a long time to build to a supposed climax of who did what and then turns around and changes the climax to perpetuate the story...example, David killed Thomas McBain...no, he didn't, Spencer did. Tess is gone but, wait, Jess is acting like Tess. So, it's possible that they might turn around and say no, Hugh isn't the son, after all. Heck, the only drama they could have milked out of that was for Hugh to be prosecuting his own father and find out later but they had him find out now and recuse himself. No conflict. So if they want to milk that story, they might choose another character.

[Scotty]

Where are you from applcin? Because that sounds a lot like what happened several months back here in Kentucky.

[applcin]

Scotty, I'm from NYC. Isn't that the story about the two girls from a university in Michigan but the accident happened in Indiana? I was just reading up on it again and, apparently, that whole case sparked new proposed laws in Indiana about training for coroners...currently, they have none. All they really needed was to be 18, live in Indiana and get elected to be coroner!

[Scotty]

That's right, it was Indiana....for some reason I was thinking they were from here in Kentucky. The girls attended Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. Here is a page from the school's website talking the accident: http://www.taylor.edu/community/news/05_06/memorial.shtml . That doesn't surprise me though about the lack of qualifications for the office of coroner. Here's an article about that: http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti.../610060327/1003 . The April 26 accident killed four Taylor University students and one university employee.

[poohbear19]

It's nice to some sort of confirmation... But since nothing has come out that Hugh's gone (here or in mags), I have to wonder if the body they buried is really Hugh or just some random guy.

[Scotty]

Me too...Llanview seems to be in a world of its own these days.

[rem13]

If they didn't bury Hugh, then where is he? Unless he is in another hospital room not getting air time.

[applcin]

My question is, if ME was on vacation during this time, is that Josh C. under those bandages? That would be ironic, if the guy playing Hugh was playing John, whom everyone thinks is Hugh.

Also, if John is that badly burned all over his body, how viable a character can he be? I'll bet Spencer the super doc will have a hand in his recovery with a special treatment only he can perform, lol. Then John would owe his life to his father's killer.

[poohbear19]

Well, the soapy thing to do would be reveal that Hugh is at some cabin somewhere with some woman (who happen to save him from dying and nurse him back to health)... with amensia; after it's revealled that John is the one in the bandages and that the body buried is not Hugh. I can then see something happening with Spencer finding him first, and turning him against Paige.

[LadyDi]

I like that scenario - anything to get Hugh back on our screen again.

As of today, the audience believes Hugh is dead and the canvas of characters are the only ones who will be surprised when John rises out of the ashes. The writers should use that to their advantage and shock the heck out of the audience and bring Hugh back alive. Be creative!!

[dawn9476]

ME ain't on vacation. He is off the canvas for several weeks because his contract negoiations went down to the wire so of course, OLTL had to write John out. Stupid ABC. They should have just let ME walk because John McBain sucks and is not worth all this crap.

If Hugh is really dead and was sacrificed to prop up John Mcbain's dumb ass, I am going to hate McPain with the intesity of two million suns instead of the one million I already do.